WooCommerce Now Requires a WordPress.com Account

Yesterday, WooCommerce announced that any users wanting to log into WooCommerce.com will require a WordPress.com account to log in. The change has been met with mixed reactions and has been widely discussed on business blogs and social media since the news broke.

When the changes were brought in, WooCommerce published a post on their company blog that outlined the changes, as well as their reasons for bringing them in in the first place:

We found that a lot of customers were using two accounts to access services from one company. To simplify that, we are centralizing on the WordPress.com login. Automattic has done this with previous acquisitions, like Polldaddy, for the same reasons. Now you can use only one login to access all Automattic services, including WooCommerce, Jetpack, VaultPress and more.

The reasoning does make sense, particularly when you note their point about users being able to use one set of login details to access all of the services on Automattic’s roster. However, with 37% of all ecommerce sites running WooCommerce, any changes were likely to bring with them a certain level of criticism. The main issue users seem to have is that the change was brought in with no prior announcement or warning; one day users could log in using their usual details, the next day they couldn’t access their account without a WordPress.com account.

WooCommerce have confirmed the change was brought in to increase security and convenience and that the response so far has been mostly good. Within the first day they received over 10,000 successful logins and have only received query tickets from 1% of users, half of whom were confused about the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

WooCommerce might have stressed that the change was brought in to boost convenience but the set up certainly isn’t convenient for those who manage multiple client accounts in WooCommerce. There isn’t currently a robust workaround in place but WooCommerce are aware of the difficulties and have confirmed that they are prioritising bringing in changes that should make it easier for developers who manage multiple client accounts.

A poll is currently being run on WooCommerce.com where users can weigh in with their opinion on the change. If you want to have your voice heard then head over to the WooCommerce blog, scroll down to the bottom of the post and get voting.